Official North Pole Seal. A Christmas Carol, with Jim Carrey.

 

                                   Official North Pole Seal. 

                         A Christmas Carol, with Jim Carrey. 

In 1836, Jacob Marley dies on Christmas Eve in London, leaving behind only his old and miserly business partner Ebenezer Scrooge.

Seven years later, on Christmas Eve in 1843, Scrooge refuses to partake in the merriment of Christmas, declining his cheerful nephew Fred's invitation to the annual Christmas dinner party and rejecting two gentlemen's offer to collect money for charity. His loyal employee Bob Cratchit asks Scrooge to allow him to have a day off on Christmas Day to spend time with his family, to which Scrooge reluctantly agrees. That night, Scrooge encounters the ghost of Jacob Marley bound in heavy chains. Marley warns Scrooge to repent of his wicked ways or he will be condemned to an even worse fate, revealing that Scrooge's chains are even more ponderous due to laboring on them for seven years longer than Marley did. Marley informs Scrooge that he will be haunted by three spirits who will guide him away from this miserable existence.

First, Scrooge is visited by the uncanny Ghost of Christmas Past, who takes him back in time. Scrooge relives his lonely childhood in a boarding school where he spent his days reading. The spirit then shows his beloved younger sister Fan, Fred's future mother, and his relationship with her. Scrooge later began a successful career in business and money-lending as an employee under Fezziwig, and he became engaged to a woman named Belle. However, the Ghost shows Scrooge how Belle left him when he became obsessed with wealth. A devastated Scrooge extinguishes the spirit with his candle snuffer cap and is rocketed back to the present.

Next, Scrooge meets the jolly Ghost of Christmas Present, who shows him the joys and wonder of Christmas Day. Scrooge and the Ghost visit Bob's house, learning that his family is content with their small dinner, and Scrooge starts to take pity on Bob's ill son Tiny Tim, whom the Ghost comments will likely not survive until next Christmas; at this point, the Ghost slowly begins to age. They next visit Scrooge’s nephew Fred, who is throwing a party for his guests and insists that they raise a toast to Scrooge in spite of his cold demeanor. Arriving in Big Ben, the Ghost warns Scrooge about the evils of "Ignorance" and "Want"; Big Ben begins tolling midnight as "Ignorance" and "Want" manifest themselves before Scrooge as two wretched children who grow into violent, insane individuals, leaving the spirit withering away.

Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives, appearing as a dark shadow, and takes Scrooge into the future. He witnesses a group of businessmen discussing the death of an unnamed colleague, saying they would only attend the funeral if lunch is provided. After being chased across London by the Ghost, Scrooge recognizes his charwoman Mrs. Dilber selling the stolen possessions of the deceased. Shortly afterwards, Scrooge sees the aforementioned colleague's body on a bed, followed by a vision of a family who is relieved that he is dead, as they have more time to pay off their debt. The spirit transports Scrooge to Bob's residence, discovering that Tiny Tim has died. Scrooge is then escorted to a cemetery, where the Ghost points out his own grave, revealing Scrooge as the man who died. Realizing the consequences upon his actions, Scrooge decides to change his ways just as the Ghost takes on a reaper like appearance and forces him to fall into his empty coffin lying in a deep grave that sits above a vortex to Hell.

Waking up in his own room on Christmas Day, with love and happiness in his heart, a gleeful Scrooge decides to surprise Bob's family with a turkey dinner, and ventures out with the charity workers and the citizens of London to spread happiness in the city, and later attends Fred's Christmas dinner, where he is warmly welcomed. The following day, he gives Cratchit a raise. Cratchit states to the viewers that Scrooge becomes a father figure to Tiny Tim, who escapes death, and Scrooge now treats everyone with kindness, generosity, and compassion.

Disney's A Christmas Carol, or simply A Christmas Carol, is a 2009 American computer-animated dark fantasy Christmas film written and directed by Robert Zemeckis. It is based on Charles Dickens's 1843 novel of the same name and stars Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn and Cary Elwes. The film was produced through the process of motion capture, a technique used in Zemeckis's previous films The Polar Express (2004) and Beowulf (2007). It is Disney's third adaptation of the classic story, following Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) and The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), and one of only two films produced by ImageMovers Digital.

A Christmas Carol was officially released in Disney Digital 3-D and IMAX 3-D on November 6, 2009 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It had its world premiere in London, coinciding with the switching-on of the annual Oxford Street and Regent Street Christmas lights. The film earned $325 million on a $175-200 million budget and received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its visuals, Alan Silvestri's musical score and the performances of Carrey and Oldman, but criticized its dark tone. Due to its poor box-office performance, ImageMovers Digital was later shut down by Disney and re-absorbed into ImageMovers.

After making The Polar Express (2004), Robert Zemeckis stated that he "fell in love with digital cinema" and tried finding an avenue in order to use the format again. He eventually figured out that an adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol would be an opportunity to achieve this. Upon rereading the story, he realized that "the story has never been realized in a way that it was actually imagined by Charles Dickens as he wrote it," as well as that "it's as if he wrote this story to be a movie because it's so visual and so cinematic." Zemeckis has stated previously that A Christmas Carol is one of his favorite stories dealing with time travel. Carrey has described the film as "a classical version of A Christmas Carol.  There are a lot of vocal things, a lot of physical things, I have to do. Not to mention doing the accents properly, the English, Irish accents , I want it to fly in the UK. I want it to be good and I want them to go, 'Yeah, that's for real.' We were very true to the book. It's beautiful. It's an incredible film."

Disney partnered with Amtrak to promote the film with a special nationwide train tour, starting in May 2009 and visiting 40 cities, finishing in New York in November.